The Angel CoFund £100m fund is being expanded to support businesses across Britain
Business Minister Michael Fallon announced this week that the Angel CoFund partnership is being expanded to the entire country.
Until now, the fund has only been available to businesses in certain areas due to being funded by the Regional Growth Fund. From this week, firms throughout the UK will be eligible for support.
The Angel CoFund invests amounts of £100,000 to £1 million into small and medium sized businesses with high growth potential, working in partnership with syndicates of experienced business angels to help companies reach their potential.
Successful investments
Since its launch in November 2011, the fund has supported 27 companies, providing £10m in direct investment alongside £40m from business angels.
Businesses helped by the Angel CoFund already include going out app YPlan, smart TV games publisher PlayJam and breast cancer screening technology company Micrima.
As well as providing funding for ambitious small firms, the fund is using government backing to encourage the expansion of the business angel culture.
“Thanks to their hard-won experience in business, business angels can be savvier than banks at spotting winners,” says Business Minister Michael Fallon. “By reinforcing their commitment with government support, the CoFund will support the most promising and entrepreneurial businesses, giving growth and jobs a kick-start.”
Acceleration
The fund is now able to accelerate its activities, having demonstrated considerable demand from UK companies for this type of long term equity support, with an additional investment of £50m in the 2013 Budget as part of the government’s Business Bank programme.
“The Angel CoFund works towards simple and sensible principles: we want to support and improve angel investing in the UK; and we want to get cash to good companies that can use the money to really scale their businesses. We are the most active fund in the country and the largest of its type in the world, and we are delighted to be able to support entrepreneurs across the UK in this way,” adds George Whitehead, non-executive chairman of the Angel CoFund.